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Civilians Describe Atrocities in Blue Nile

By Natalie Kitroeff April 23, 2012 8:25 pmApril 23, 2012 8:25 pm

Two men in a detention center are burned to death. A woman, breastfeeding her child, is executed with a machine gun on the spot. A pregnant woman, whose only crime is sitting in the wrong market at the wrong time, has her leg blown off by an Antonov bomb.

These are the accounts of witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch during its recent research trip to Blue Nile state in Sudan. The video footage and accompanying article offer a very rare glimpse into a region that the government has taken great pains to cut off from the outside world. Reports of the scale and brutality of human rights violations suggest that conditions in Blue Nile are every bit as bad as they are in neighboring South Kordofan, where a few journalists (and even George Clooney) have reported on similar abuses since armed conflict erupted there last September.

Government forces appear to be using their fight against rebels as an excuse to target civilians. Men, women and even children who are suspected of supporting the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army are rounded up and summarily shot, according to the report. Others are detained and beaten mercilessly. And just as in South Kordofan the relentless barrage of Antonov bombs, which are often literally rolled out of the back of planes, continues to claim the lives of defenseless civilians.

To survive, many have dug foxholes for cover, or simply fled their homes to hide in temporary camps less visible to bombers overhead.

On Monday at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, President Obama called for an end to the slaughter of innocent Sudanese and South Sudanese, saying:

“In Darfur, Abyei, South Kordofan and the Blue Nile, the killing of innocents must come to an end. The presidents of Sudan and South Sudan must have the courage to negotiate because the people of Sudan and South Sudan deserve peace.”

Let’s hope that this new evidence of unspeakable atrocities in Blue Nile will put even more pressure on Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to stop targeting civilians. It would be heartless to turn our backs on the people of Blue Nile, especially now that we know the extent of their suffering.

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